My Experience with UAP (Qubool) Saudi University Admissions
If you’re a Saudi student who just finished high school, you’ve probably heard of UAP or Qubool. It’s the platform the Ministry of Education made for applying to universities and technical colleges in Saudi Arabia. Instead of applying to each university separately, you do everything in one place.
I’m going through it right now, so here’s my experience so far.
What is UAP?
UAP stands for Unified Admission Platform (المنصة الوطنية للقبول الموحد). Most people call it Qubool. It covers most public universities and technical colleges in Saudi Arabia. You create one account, fill out your info once, and apply to multiple universities from the same dashboard.
Getting Started
First, you go to uap.sa and create an account using your national ID or residency number. Then you fill in your personal details, contact info, and educational background.
The Dashboard
Once you log in, check your profile page and info to make sure everything is updated.
Choosing Universities and Majors
This is the part that took me the longest. You can browse available universities and their programs, check the admission requirements, and see the weighted score criteria. Some majors are competitive, so you need to know what scores they’re looking for.
The reason it took me a long time is I gathered all the available lists and then ran them through AI to choose the best one for my grades. I had preferences like CS, the Chinese language, and English literature as majors. But I put all this information through AI to choose the best one for my weighted score and preferred major.
Weighted Scores
Saudi universities use weighted scores (نسبة موزونة) to rank applicants. It’s usually a combination of:
- High school GPA
- Qudurat (قدرات) score
- Tahseely (تحصيلي) score
- Sometimes STEP English exam score on certain majors/unis
Each university and major has its own weight for each of these.
My Recommendations
Fill Out Your Scholarship Data
Go to your profile and click on the scholarship data tab. Add your social media information and your language tests. I recommend taking the DET since it’s easy, fast, and online. You can get your scores in forty-eight hours.
The only undergraduate universities that accept the DET in 2026 are:
- King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals — admissions.kfupm.edu.sa
- Prince Sultan University — psu.edu.sa
- Saudi Electronic University
This information is based on the Duolingo English Test accepting institutions page. To check the latest undergraduate programs that accept the DET, visit that link.
Understanding the Wishlist
When adding a wishlist, if you see a trophy cup icon near your program:
This means this preference is the highest probability of acceptance according to the current selection process.
Where I’m At Now
I’ve submitted my applications and I’m waiting. I’ll update this post as I get results.
If you’re also applying this year, hopefully this helps. If you have questions about something specific, let me know and I’ll add it.